The woman behind the scary 'Rings' ghoul is a gorgeous red-headed contortionist and comedian

• Contortionist Bonnie Morgan plays Samara in "The Ring Two" and "Rings."• She's been a contortionist for years.• Many of the crew never knew what she looked like since she was always in makeup on set.

"Rings," Paramount's update to the horror-thriller franchise, comes to theaters February 3. The third movie in the franchise reunites fans with Samara, the creepy well-dwelling girl who promises to kill anyone who watches a haunted tape a week after they view it.

While Samara herself may give you the spooks, the person underneath the wig and scaly skin is the complete opposite. You probably didn't realize that the person playing the "Rings" creepster is actually a comedian and contortionist with vibrant red hair.

Meet Bonnie Morgan:

Mitchel Evans

It's not just you doing a double take. Morgan tells INSIDER that even at the wrap party for "Rings," many didn't recognize her with curly hair in a panda dress.

"Oftentimes the actors, actually the crew, never see me out of makeup because I show up at 4 a.m. with my team," said Morgan. "I'll come around, they usually catch the voice, 'Like, hey guys, what's going on?' They're like, 'Oh my gosh, is that you?'"

While filming, Morgan is usually in a trailer for over six hours getting transformed into the iconic "Rings" character. By the time most people get to set, she's usually in the midst of getting made up.

"They'll see me at like various parts in and out of the makeup, but no one really knows what I look like on set half the time," she said.

It's not just Morgan's role in "Rings" and 2005's "The Ring Two" that she's known for playing. If you're a horror junkie, you may have also seen Morgan contorting her body in 2012's "The Devil Inside."

She didn't always start out in horror movies though. You've probably seen her in a myriad of films and television shows without realizing it. The daughter of actor/stuntman and circus performer Gary Morgan, Bonnie started her career as a child actress with roles guest-starring on shows including "The Nanny" and "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman." Over the years, she has appeared in several big movies as well like "Men in Black II," "Seven Pounds," and "Minority Report."

Morgan first learned she could contort her body at age nine when she and her older sister were playing in the pool.

"The first time we discovered it, I was hanging off the edge of a diving board and she was trying to peel me off of it by my ankles and she just kind of hooked in behind my neck and voila," she said. "It was more like, 'Dad, Bonnie's being weird,' and Dad went, 'Ooo, this is good. You can make a buck with that.'"

There are various kinds of contortionists. Backbenders and sidewinders are two Morgan lists off, among others. Morgan herself is a frontbender and dislocater, meaning she can dislocate all of her ball and socket joints and, in addition, do a bunch of forward-bending movements which allow her to turn into a human pretzel, for example.

While it may sound painful, Morgan insists it's a living. "Just a good stretch," she said.

Among her talents, Morgan can warp her body to squeeze through tennis racquets and is small enough to fit inside boxes. She estimates the smallest-sized box she can fit inside is 15 x 19 x 13 inches.

"One of my favorite party gags is whenever we're around town I'll crawl into an empty LA Weekly box because those you don't have to pay to get into," she said of fitting into newspaper vending boxes. "I pop an arm out and grab at people sometimes. [or] I'll just knock on it, 'Hey, do you have a quarter to get me out of here?'"

"I got the nickname Gollum long before The Lord of the Rings movies came out," said Morgan. "I’d crawl around the back of the couch." Star Foreman

There aren't any other contortionists in Morgan's family to her knowledge. Being able to contort her body opened up more opportunities for her career-wise. She was raised more or less in the stunt department because her dad was an actor and an acrobat who joined the stuntmen's association so she was often showing off her skills to them and going toe-to-toe with some of their sons.

"She was a crown princess and I was a clown princess," Morgan said of being raised as her father's son, going on fishing trips and being his ski buddy.

In 2005, she appeared in "The Ring" sequel as the well-crawling Samara, a transition Morgan said came naturally.

"I have an excellent understanding of how to terrify people," she said. "From just being a big trickster as a kid and what not to do … comedy and horror are timing and a lot of it is understanding how to terrify your fellow actors."

Morgan crawling in a tube turned on its side as Samara. Paramount

That role helped pave the way for subsequent roles in "Bedeviled," "The Devil Inside," and Vin Diesel's "The Last Witch Hunter." It also helped that Morgan knew actors and producers along with stuntmen from her father, Gary. "The Ring Two" came about because the stunt coordinator, Keith Campbell, tracked her down asking whether Morgan was "still doing that crazy bendy stuff."

The film's director wanted to find a way to create Samara without using CG. Morgan came up with the iconic spider crawl for the character in her living room and it was exactly what they were looking for.

"CG monsters were becoming all the rage and everyone had one," she said. "[Director Hideo Nakata] wanted something that was real and real is always scarier."

In the new film, "Rings," Morgan will contort her way back onto the big screen as the troubled and vengeful Samara. You can see her climbing slowly out of a television toward an unlucky viewer in the film's previews.

Morgan, crawling out of a TV, as Samara. Paramount Pictures

After "Rings," you can see Morgan on season two of "Hap and Leonard," which returns to Sundance in March. She'll also be shooting overseas next month in a well-known sci-fi franchise that she wasn't able to reveal just yet.

You can catch a glimpse of Morgan in a trailer for the new season of "Hap and Leonard." SundanceTV

While Morgan has worked with the likes of Spielberg and Vin Diesel ("The Last Witch Hunter"), there is one character she would love to play.

"I just want to be Pixie the X-Man," Morgan said excitedly. "[She's] a very funny little purple-haired thing."